Inside every teenager, there is something that is just trying to escape into the real world. Still hurting from the loss of her father, Marcella, a senior in high school, fakes a smile when she says she is happy with things she has in her life. Can she go on forever like this, or will she be able to break through her barriers with someone's help?

There are days when I just want to lay down in my bed, make a fortress with my blankets and pillows, and attack anyone who wants me to go to school. With the fact that my head was pounding like as if someone was beating it to death with a tire iron, my eyes were a blazing red as well as puffy, and that I actually looked like I had just got into a fight, why on Earth would I want to go in the first place?

The persistent knocking of my sister told me that I was running behind just thinking about the problems of the universe from my bed, "Marcella it's like six forty-five, you need to get up for school."

Rolling my eyes, I only covered my face up with my blanket, trying to block out all noise with my comforter. The knocking only continued on with its annoyance, and I grabbed a shoe off of the floor, throwing it at the door to make the noise stop, "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

The knocking may have stopped by this point, but I knew that she only had one finger raised up behind that door for me, but I didn't give a shit, I just wanted to get out of the house as quick as possible. Heading for the bathroom, I wanted to avoid the mirror at all costs, but my curiosity got to me before anything else, and I saw that my lip was about twice its size and a purplish bruise on my cheek that I must have missed yesterday from probably falling on the floor.

Groaning and getting frustrated, I didn't want anyone to say anything to me about the injuries, so I texted Aria asking for a ride to school this morning for Dual Credit because I didn't want the third degree from my mom. After getting a reply from her, I took a quick shower, getting ready for the day ahead. While in the shower, I was hoping that I would be able to hide all of the afflictions to my face…

All right, so I managed to walk out of my house without anyone saying anything with little Lizzie clutched firmly in my arms, but when I got into the car with Aria, she made this really loud gasp and asked what happened to my face. I completely forgot that this girl was like an expert when it came down to the different uses of makeup, plus another give away was that my lip was about the size of a coconut.

I sighed, "Nothing… I mean, you know me, I am a complete klutz. Last night, I just slipped in the diner and hit my face on the counter. No big deal!"

She looked at me with a raised eyebrow, but started the car. The car was completely silent, save for the sound of the engine and the radio softly playing "One More Night" by Maroon 5, and it remained that way for the entire ride, but when we got to the school, she stopped me before I opened the car door. Looking over at her curiously, she pulled my bag over to her and got out my makeup bag, digging around in there. Then pulling out my cover-up and some lipstick that I had, she grabbed my chin and applied some of the concealer on a part of my lip, then with the lipstick she made my lips red, and sure you could still tell, but not as bad as before.

Before I could say thanks, she said, "Don't thank me because it still looks pretty bad, but if anything bite that part of your lip if you get insecure about it."

I nodded but she knew that I was telling her a quiet 'thank you for saving my ass' with my eyes because she only smiled and got out of the car. Taking a deep breath, I followed suit and walked toward what felt like my impending doom.

Dual Credit went by as any other day where the professor would try to make us feel inferior compared to his "superior" intellect by undermining our opinions, only to be shot down when one of us would answer the question he was asking correctly. This seemed to get him a little steamed, but nevertheless class continued on. I was beginning to become bored as he ranted, when I noticed that Nick had not come into the classroom yet. Looking all around, I tried to see if I had just overlooked him, but he didn't show up until about ten minutes before the end of the class, when he just barged in, looking angry and bent out of shape. Everyone stared at him, but he merely shook it off as he looked around the room, and when his eyes landed on mine, they were of pure loathing.

I shivered and when the bell rang for class to be over, Olivia and I made our way separated from the others toward Psychology. As we waited for the tardy bell to ring, she began to drill me about why Nick was so pissed off this morning at me, but I shrugged my shoulders saying that I didn't know.

What I was really worrying over was what would happen in A/P when the two of us would be alone without my friends there with me: Would he be a jerk? Would he ignore me, or worse freak out on me?Oh God, what if he sees the bruising on my face?

All of that worry and fear raged all about in my stomach, and I felt as if I would throw up in the next second, but I remained strong and when the bell rang, went straight to A/P, avoiding everyone at break. Coach Thames wasn't in the classroom, meaning that he was in the cafeteria talking to all of the other coaches with a cup of coffee, making rudimentary jokes about the students and what they did in class that day. Taking a breath, I sat in my seat and began taking out my notes and textbook for this class, then upon realizing that I had about ten minutes to waste, took out my compact.

Looking at my face, I noticed that there was a reason behind Aria making a big deal out of it because the makeup did nothing to hide the bruise on my cheek, and you could totally tell that my lip was about twice its size. Another thing that I didn't notice before was the bruising underneath my eyes from lack of sleep last night. I just about wanted to give up and start crying. I nearly did too until someone came into the room.

Using my compact to my advantage, I looked into the mirror and saw Nick walking up right behind me. Taking a breath and turning around, I looked up at him. A multitude of emotions flashed on his face, going from anger to confusion, bewilderment to despair, sadness to, finally, another heaping of what I could tell was purely a look of begin pissed off.

His first words completely threw me off, "Where were you this morning?"

Confused I said, "At home and then at school."

Exasperated, he threw his arms up in the air, "I meant, how did you get to school, when I got to your house this morning, you weren't there."

He nodded, but with a reserved angriness, "Why didn't you just wait for me to come and get you?"

I could feel the resentment towards him rise up within me and I got up and out of the seat, "I didn't want to get a ride with you, and so I called up Aria. What took you so long to get to the school anyways? My house is not that far from the school."

Snarling he retorted, "No but it takes a while when you are arguing with your mother. Apparently, my mom called your mom and told her everything that happened yesterday. Your mom was pretty pissed off at me and continued to argue with me when I told her what had really been happening."

I scoffed at this, "What really has been happening? Yeah right! More like your demented version of where you are always right."

He got a little defensive, "No I told her what had obviously happened."

I glared at him, "You told her that stupid and idiotic theory that you told me yesterday!?"

That was when he got uncomfortable, "No not what I said exactly, but rather about the whole Melanie thing, and how you got your fat lip. She was pretty ticked off about that, but she let me go to school after telling me that you had already left. By the way she is pretty upset you didn't tell her about the whole lip thing or anything really."

I rolled my eyes, "She can get over it."

He nodded, but his mouth was in a tight line, as if he was debating on whether to say something else. We were about an inch away from each other, with me right against the desk, feeling chills going up and down my body as I continued to feel the warmth of his body envelope me. The tension I had in my body began to fade away until my phone went off and Nick jumped away from me in shock. Looking down at the phone, trying to cover up my red face with my hair, I saw that it was another Email from Seth.

I don't know what exactly gave it away of who it was, but when I looked up Nick was gone and everyone was filling into the classroom. Glancing all around, I saw that he was sitting in a seat all the way at the back of the classroom with his hood pulled up while he had his head on his desk.

Sitting back down, I opened the Email from Seth and read:

Hey babe,

How's my favorite girl?

You probably weren't expecting me to write this quickly considering, but I just wanted to see how things are going on the flipside.

How are things going with your friends? I hope that Alice isn't still making fun of you still.

Now I have to tell you something, and I hope that you are sitting down for this because I don't want to tell you… It doesn't look like I will be able to visit you for Christmas this year. I know that we were gunning for it, but I can't. I hope that you are not too upset. Please continue to write to me because it is the only thing that I look forward to now.

Miss you,

Seth

Looking back up from the message, I could feel tears threatening to fall down as I was thinking about what he had said. Everyone was still shuffling about in the classroom, and pretty soon I knew that Coach was going to come into the room at any minute with about a million questions to ask us and he does not go easy. Wiping away tears that were starting to stray, I calmed myself down before putting away my phone and opening my textbook. It wasn't until I looked up again that I noticed that Nick was looking straight at me with a look of worry etched all across his face.

I turned my head as quickly as I could to avoid his stare, and watched as Coach Thames crept into the classroom as if he was stalking prey, "Already, kiddos, let's see if you actually have the ability to learn something… Thompson, physical and chemical reactions that happen within the body are called what?"

Glancing a bit, I noticed that Nick was still staring at me and didn't even look at Coach, but regardless, said, "Metabolism."

Stunned, Coach Thames went back to teaching the class while giving this confused look at Nick all the while. I felt my face going hot, but I pushed my face into my book and ignored the evil blushing.

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